Plate theory and complementary displacement method (Q1303096)

Within this paper a new plate theory is presented which is different from the usual hypotheses concerning normals or stresses. The new plate theory is based on a kinematic formulation where the displacement field is decomposed into the sum of a principal displacement, which allows the usual plate theory concepts to be introduced, and a complementary displacement, which preserves the exactness of the equilibrium equations and enables the constitutive equation of the plate to be derived from the three-dimensional situation. Some actual examples show that the results are identical in the case of isotropic and homogeneous material, but they are somewhat different in the case of multilayered plates.